Southern Miss M-Club Hall of Fame
- Induction:
- 1965
The University of Southern Mississippi’s athletic program dates back to the early days of the institution but its real growth began in the late 1930s and blossomed after World War II.
Green almost single-handedly took Southern Miss and propelled it into the “big leagues”. Under his guidance the school gained major college status in both football and basketball in the 1960s.
One of the men responsible for the upward surge was Reed Green. Green played football at USM from 1930 to 1934, served as an assistant football coach under Allison (Pooley) Hubert after graduation, became head football coach in 1937 and the school’s first full-time athletic director in 1949, remaining in that capacity under 1974.
As a player at Southern Miss, Green had the nickname of “The Leakesville Express”, and he earned 10 varsity letters in football, baseball and basketball. He became skilled in the arts of football, and the management of football players, under the tutelage of Hubert, an ex-Alabama great.
One of the most memorable moments in Green’s career came during his junior year in one of the first games ever played at Faulkner Field. In a scoreless battle with Union University, Green ran 80-yards in a driving rainstorm for what proved to be the winning touchdown.
Green also earned letters in basketball and baseball at Southern Miss.
Hubert kept Green on as freshman coach after his graduation in 1934, and as a varsity assistant in 1935 and 1936.
Green moved up to head coach when Hubert left in 1937. In nine seasons his teams compiled a 56-21-3 record.
He left the coaching ranks in 1949 to become athletic director and begin a life long drive to elevate Southern Miss to major college status.
His determined and diligent efforts paid off. The powers of the Southeastern Conference began scheduling football games with USM, as did teams in the Atlantic Coast Conference and the Southern Conference.
One of his biggest dreams was to build a stadium on campus large enough to afford bringing the name teams to Hattiesburg. That dream was realized with the renovation and opening of M.M. Roberts Stadium in September of 1976, with a capacity of 33,000.
While his greatest personal reward was the continued growth and progress of the entire athletic program during his tenure, many other honors have come his way.
He has been inducted into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and the school’s beautiful coliseum bears his name, the Bernard Reed Green Coliseum.
